The Day The Shadow Fell
by 091304
Summary: It's said the moon will drop on Burgess in exactly 3 days so Jack seeks out the help of the guardians.


**A/N: fill for the kink meme**

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Spring had already arrived this year but the cold was still here. It wasn't a complaint really, Jack loved the Winter. It was his favorite season. What he hated was how the moon kept coming closer and closer to Burgess. It was sure to fall on the town any day now and a lot of people that were terrified already left while the ones that didn't believe in such things remained.

"We need to start packing tonight. The moon has been getting closer a lot quicker lately." An older woman with short brown hair commented, staring up at the sky with worry on her face.

"But mom! All my friends are here!" A smaller girl complained as she tugged on her mothers dress. "I don't wanna leave!"

"I know sweetie but we have to." Came the reply followed by more complaining. Just as the daughter didn't want to leave, neither did the mother. The Overland family spent their entire life living in Burgess. It was their home after all. To abandon it just like that would take a mighty force and the moon was just that.

"I'm gonna head out, okay?" The last one in the Overland family said, already starting off for the town.

"Jack, wait!" His mother hurried back into the kitchen and hurried back with a glass container of milk. The young boy put his hands out in front of him and his mother planted the container of milk in his hands.

"Is this for me?" He joked.

"No, silly. I want you to give it to the Bennett's." Jack nodded and was about to leave when his mother grabbed his arm this time. "Jack, I hope you're not leaving like that. It's chilly out there. Here, put this on." She grabbed a blue cape that was folded up neatly by the door and pulled it over the small boy, making sure that his hood was over his head as well.

"Mooom! This is embarrassing!" His cheeks were flushed a light pink. His mother had made him a blue cape with a hood in the shape of a bunny when he was a wee lad. It was his favorite thing to wear around the ranch while playing with his shepherds crook until one day he had deemed it for babies. Once his baby sister Emma got ahold of it, he accidentally yelled at her for dragging it around and dirtying it.

"I wanna come too!" Emma ran up to Jack in a tackle, making him step back a bit from the impact. Without a word of protest from him, their mother was already putting on Emma's own brown cape with a bear instead of a bunny for the hood.

"You both look so adorable." Their mother clapped her hands together in delight. Before she could do anything that would embarrass him further like take a picture, he grabbed his shepherds crook and slipped into his brown boots, making a break for it out the door with Emma following behind.

Once they were far enough from the ranch, he slowed down to let his sister catch up to him so they could travel side by side. The ranch was outside of Burgess's walls, a bit away from the town but always in sight of one another once they had reached the opening of the small forest. There was nothing in the forest besides a few birds but Emma always seen something which would cause her to come crying back to him or their mother. Today was no different. Emma grabbed onto Jack's cape as they began walking again.

"It's okay, kid-o. There's nothing here that'll hurt you." He attempted to soothe her.

"But there is, Jack! I seen something." She gripped on tighter this time. "It looked like a black horse with glowing yellow eyes- AH!" Jack was pulled back a bit thanks to Emma's grip. He turned to look back at her in a scolding manner when he seen a black horse with glowing yellow eyes holding his baby sister in it's mouth. She was right, it was scary but it wasn't anything he couldn't handle.

"Don't worry." He walked towards the horse, stopping in front of his sister and rubbed it's neck. "Hey there, I need you let go of her." As if listening to the command, the horse dropped Emma and Jack caught her as soon as she was released. The horse immediately grabbed ahold of the glass container in Jack's hand in an attempt to pull it away but he held onto it tightly.

"Let go!" He hit the horse with his shepherds crook which only made it grip the glass container tighter in it's mouth. "Stop that! It's gonna break!" This time he kicked against one of the horses legs which caused it to let go of the container. It made Jack and Emma fall back from the sudden force while the horse went down low, biting at one of Jack's boots.

"Jack!" Emma screamed, huddling closer to him.

"Go on ahead of me." He handed the glass container to his sister as she shook her head in fear. "It's okay. I'll be right behind you." So Emma gathered up her courage, pulling her self up and running out of the forest in the direction of Burgess.

The horse is about to follow when Jack kicked it straight in the face with his free foot and immediately banged the shepherds crook into one of it's eyes right after the first attack. The horse let out a whine and backed away at the sudden pain as Jack pulled himself up, rushing for the exit of the forest. The horse whines again and charges after him.

Jack spots his little sister at the opening of the forest bent down slightly as she tried to catch her breath. When she notices him, she lets out a silent scream as she points to the dark horse following after him in horror. He grabs ahold of her as soon as he reached her and kept on running straight for the walls of Burgess.

"It's not following us!" Jack turned to look back after Emma's sudden outburst. The horse was staying inside the forest, pacing back and forth.

"Look at this horse. He can't even follow us. Some monster he is!" The elder brother snickered.

"Loser!" The younger sister taunted.

The two Overland children laughed and continue to taunt the dark horse, sticking their tongues out now completely fearless of the monster that once frightened them moments before. The horse hit against the ground with one of it's feet and snarled viciously, charging for them once again.

"Jack!" The little girl screamed out again, making the elder one cease in his laughter to see the horse charging them for in an attack.

"Uh oh.." Jack turned back around and ran for the walls of Burgess once more. If he could reach them, the guards could protect them from this monster that was trying to kill them.

The horse rammed into the duo, forcing them to fall to the ground. It raised it's fronts to bang down but Jack rolled out of the way barely in time. He pushed his sister towards the entrance of the town. When the horse headed over to Emma, Jack hit it across the face with his shepherds crook once more. Emma rushed over to the entrance while it was distracted to get the guards attention. Jack pulled up his shepherds crook to block the horse from following; The horse countered by pushing against him violently.

"Over here!" The guards headed out towards Jack with Emma leading them. The horse stopped, running back to the forest after seeing the group come over.

"Are you alright?" One of the guards stopped by Jack, leaning his hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah.. Thanks."

After the Overland children got their wits about them, the guards led them inside the walls of Burgess. They headed for the Bennett's home to meet up with their longest family friend. The Overland's and Bennett's were extremely close, if their jobs weren't obvious to tell the tale. The Overland's worked and lived in the ranch just outside of town while the Bennett's ran a bar that served the milk they made, along with other alcoholic beverages. Jack never understood why the Bennett's served milk of all things in a bar but he had tried to sneak in a few times when he was younger only to get yelled at by both his mother and Mrs. Bennett.

Knock knock.

"I'm coming!" Mrs. Bennett opened the door not too long after, face lighting up as she seen just who her visitors were. "Jack, Emma! Good morning! What brings you two here so early in the morning?"

"Mom wanted us to give you this." Jack took the glass container of milk from Emma's hands and handed it to Mrs. Bennett. No cracks, that surprised him. With the way that horse kept knocking them down, he was sure there'd be a few cracks if it wasn't already broken.

"Thank you, sweethearts. Come on in." Mrs. Bennett signaled as she walked into her home, putting the milk down on the kitchen table.

"Thank you, ma'am." Jack went inside with Emma following close behind shyly. He closed the door after both were in. "Uh.. may I ask something?"

"It's not about the milk again, is it?"

"No, no." He laughed. "Nothing like that. This is gonna sound weird but have you seen any dark horses?"

"Dark horses? You mean the kind you have at the ranch?"

"No, I mean, pitch black horses with glowing yellow eyes." Emma gripped onto his clothes when he cleared up the misunderstanding. He lifted his baby sister up in his arms, rubbing her back to soothe her from the trauma that had just occurred only a few minutes ago.

"Now that you mention it, I've heard some travelers and the guards have a run in with these horses." Mrs. Bennett watched them sadly. "You've met with them?"

He nodded. "Just before we got here. It kept attacking us."

"Are either of you hurt?" Mrs. Bennett rushed over immediately, checking the two for any visible wounds.

"Nah, just tired and a bit frightened." He admitted. "Is it alright if I leave Emma with you?"

"Nooooo!" The little girl clung tighter around Jack's neck while Mrs. Bennett nodded in response.

"Em., I've gotta do something. You'll be perfectly fine here with Mrs. Bennett. Jamie and Sophie will be here to play with you too."

"I don't want you to go." She sobbed. Jack hated making her cry but this was the last time he'd be able to go so he made sure to give her the greatest present ever when he returned.

"I won't be gone for long. I made a promise to meet someone." He wasn't sure why he said that. He wasn't actually going to meet anyone so he was just lying to her now but he didn't feel guilty about it like he normally did.

But she understood that promises were important so she released her grip on him and he put her down on the couch, giving her a quick tight embrace. He let go, waving to the both of them and left the Bennett's home.

He made his way for the clock tower in the center of town. It was going to be Easter in four days and the people of Burgess always held big celebrations for holidays so it wouldn't be any different for Easter.

Jack snuck in while no one was looking, made it up the spiral staircase and stopped next to the window. It was his favorite spot in town, a place where he could see all the happenings that went on in Burgess.

Suddenly there was a thud behind him. He turned around to see a girl with long black hair in a green dress. "Hey, are you okay?" Jack headed over to her and bent down, holding her up from the shoulders. Now that he's got a closer look, he notices the blood in her dress. "I didn't realize someone else was here." He comments, hoping she was still conscious enough to answer.

The girls eyes flutter open and her head snaps up to stare at the boy in front of her. Her eyes then go wide as she lets out a surprised gasp. "Please, Jackson. You have to help me!"

Jack's face twists in confusion. "How do you know my name? More importantly, you need to get to the hospital. You're badly injured!" He gets a good look at her face, noticing all the bruises and cuts.

The girl only shakes her head. "I need to stop the moon. Please help me. You said you didn't want to move, right?"

It's Jack's turn to be surprised. "H-How do you know about that?! I haven't told anyone that yet!"

The girl gasps again, mumbling. "It worked." She then takes his hands off her shoulders and holds them together, her expression now calm. "My name is Seraphina and I'm on a mission to stop the moon from falling. Unfortunately, due to my injuries I cannot possibly complete it now. You see, Father Time granted me an ancient relic of his to assist me on my mission and it's very, very important that this gets completed or else everyone in this town will die."

"Wait. So how do you know me?" Jack questions, not taking her words seriously. Seraphina lets go of his hands and reaches for something behind her, bringing forth an hourglass with sand in it.

"This is the ancient relic Father Time gave me. With this I went back in time. So for me, we've already met before. Though it is quite surprising to see you here." She explained. "When we first met, you were defending your family from a group of fearlings or what you might know them better as are those dark horses with golden eyes. I helped you fight them off and we made a promise to meet at this spot three days from now."

"A-A promise? I do remember making one with someone. That was really you?" She nods her head in response.

"I know this sounds weird and fishy but please. You have to help me. You're the only one I can ask." This time she looks down, fully expecting him to refuse. It sounded completely ridiculous when she explained everything and even now she was beginning to doubt what had happened.

"Sure." He leaned back, sitting on the floor in front of her. "What do I have to do?"

Seraphina's eyes go wide in surprise which slowly becomes calmer as she smiles, looking to him. "Thank you so much." She then hands him the hourglass and he cradles it in his hands, looking at the sand fall. "Have you heard of the guardians before?"

"Yeah, they're suppose to be all powerful beings that protect the children of this Earth." Jack looks back to her. "What about them?"

"You need to visit them all and release each of them from the fearlings grasp. They're the only ones that can stop the moon from falling." She continues to explain. "As for the fearlings, they're extremely dangerous. They feed off of peoples fears and as the moon keeps getting closer, they keep getting stronger. The fearlings are also in control of someone very dear to me and we need to separate the fearlings from him."

"How would we do that?" He asks, wondering who exactly they took from her.

She shakes her head. "I'm not sure. I was going to ask the guardians for help with that too but I never made it too far."

Chirp chirp chirp chirp.

"Is that you?" Seraphina shakes her head again and reaches behind her to pull out a small weird looking bird. It continues to chirp angrily then flies up, ready to peck out the girls eyes. Jack reaches over to it in time, pulling it over to him.

"That's one of Toothiana's fairies. You know, the ones that collect children's teeth. Anyway, I'm positive she knows the way to each of the guardians so she'll definitely be of help to you." The tiny fairy growls at Seraphina, struggling to get out of Jack's hand.

"She doesn't like you very much." He chuckles at the tiny fairy then pulls her up so he can look at her. "Hey there, little miss. Is it alright if I call you Baby Tooth then?" He flashes her a smile and she's immediately squealing, distracted by his teeth so he takes that as a 'yes.'

Jack looks towards Seraphina again, this time at her wounds. "Let's get you to the hospital. I don't want you dying on me." He releases Baby Tooth and picks up Seraphina in a bridal style then heads out of the clock tower and for the hospital.

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**A/N: responses**

**wisedomsdaughter: oh wow! thank you reader**


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